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Wednesday, 22 March 2017

Review - 'Iron Fist', S01E09 - 'The Mistress of All Agonies'

I suppose that any
lingering concerns I may have had about the death of Harold Meachum
can be laid to rest with the opening moments of the season's ninth
episode – as we are shown, quite clearly, that he isn't actually
dead, after all. Or, to be more precise, he was
dead – but, now, he's back. It seems that Harold's previous
experience of being brought back to life by the Hand has had some
rather unexpected consequences – and, now, the implication is
clearly that Harold Meachum simply can't be permanently killed.

It
was a spectacularly strange way to open the episode, too – as we
saw Harold dragging himself out of the lake where his son, Ward, had
dumped his body, then stumbling through the streets in a daze,
guided, almost instinctively, back to the Rand Enterprises building
as his memories slowly returned. It was a scene that managed to be
both oddly comic yet, at the same time, vaguely unsettling – and,
David Wenham played it all very well.

That
odd mix of comedy and and uneasiness continued throughout much of the
episode, too – even as Harold seemed to slowly recover from his
ordeal. The inevitable reunion between Ward and Harold, with Harold
seeming oddly unbothered by the fact that his son had murdered him
and dumped his body in a lake, made for a very tense scene – as I
found myself expecting a violent outburst that never actually came.
When that violent outburst actually did come, with Harold lashing out
at his assistant over an entirely trivial slight, it proved to be a
genuinely disturbing, despite the inherent silliness of the whole
situation.

By
the time that Harold finally reached out to Joy, at the end of the
episode, the sense of unpredictable danger that he represents had
been pretty firmly established. After all, we had just seem him muder
his assistant, with an ice-scream scoop, for no other reason than
that his assistant had asked for vanilla ice-cream. There's no
possible way to know what he might do is his daughter says, or does,
something to momentarily anger him.

As
a side-not, here, Harold's behaviour (along with the story that Ward
hears about what tends to happen with the people that the Hand brings
back) also suggests that there was some unpleasantness in store for
Elektra's eventual return – since we last saw her about to go
through the same process of being brought back at the end of the
second episode of Daredevil.
Ultimately, Harold's current circumstances also provide a nice bit of
foreshadowing which didn't feel too heavy-handed – so, that was
something that I definitely appreciated.

Elsewhere,
though, we also had Madame Gao being held prisoner at Colleen's Dojo
– where she seemed to be genuinely enjoying herself as she played
mind-games with her captors. Honestly, the idea that Danny had
decided to bring Gao all the way from China, back to America, before
bothering to question felt like another bit of silliness – but, I
suppose I can let it pass. More than anything, this whole sequence
provided Wai Ching Ho with some of her greatest moments in the role,
so far, as she picked at the resolve of both Claire and Colleen. The
fact that Gao seemed entirely unfazed even by Danny's threats of
physical violence, along with the hints that she may actually be over
a couple of hundred years old, certainly further cemented her as the
show's most fascinating figure.

That
being said, though, I'm still not sure I fully understand the
sequence of events that led us to this point. Did Gao, for example,
really flee to China, or did she lead Danny there? Also, did Danny
really gain the upper-hand so easily, or did Gao allow herself to be
captured and brought back to America? If she did allow herself to be
capture, then why? Hopefully, some of this will be resolved before
the season comes to an end – because, at this point, I'm more
frustrated than intrigued by the lack of clear answers.

Danny
doesn't have long to try to get the information he needs out of
Madame Gao, of course – as, they soon find themselves surrounded by
Gao's forces. At the same time, Colleen finds herself suffering from
the effects of the Hand's poison – having unknowingly been cut by
one of their poisoned weapons during the previous episode (I have no
idea how Colleen was able to make it through a flight from China to
America if she had been poisoned, of course – I suppose that's just
something else I'll need to let pass). With the dojo surrounded, and
Colleen's life in danger, Danny has no choice but to reach out to
Bakuto (Ramon Rodriguez), Colleen's sensei, who may be the only one
with the knowledge to save her. As it turns out, though, it seems
that the power to save Colleen's life may actually rest with Danny,
himself – as he learns that the power of the Iron Fist can be used
for more than just combat.

At
this point, it feels as though we should definitely have a clear idea
of what, exactly, the central conflict of the season is actually
supposed to be. Overall, though, it just doesn't feel as though this
episode does much to establish any sort of narrative arc for the
remaining few episodes. Harold Meachum's increasingly strange
sub-plot still feels incredibly separate from the rest of the season
– so, if he were to suddenly find himself cast as the season's
primary villain, it would feel a little anti-climactic. Gao had,
initially, seemed set up to become the primary villain – but, with
her being taken by Bakuto's own forces at the end of the episode, it
seems as though she may have been taken out of the picture. There's
Bakuto himself, of course (I do believe that the character is
associated with the Hand, in the comics – and, there is definitely
something a bit off about him, here, even apart from the fact that
Gao already seems familiar with him), or even the mysterious new figure seen watching from the distance – but, unless it is done well,
suddenly introducing a new character to serve as the primary
antagonist, so late in the season, could turn out to be a mistake.

In
the end, even though this episode featured plenty of great moments,
it is also let down by that sense of a lack of clear focus which
plagued the season's first episodes. It has begun to feel as though
the season is juggling too many elements, and none of them have been
given the attention they need to properly develop. With four episodes
left in the season, though, there is still time for Iron
Fist to reach something that
resembles a satisfying conclusion – so, I suppose I'll just have to
continue with my 'wait and see' approach to this series.